Draft Budget of FBiH for 2016 for the Second Time Before Delegates of the House of Peoples of FBiH

Delegates of the House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament will discuss the Draft Budget of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2016 today, under an urgent procedure, writes the BiH news agency Patria.

The draft federal budget for the next year, which is around 2.6 billion KM, was already rejected by the delegates ten days ago. The budget was subsequently adopted by the House of Representatives, and today, it is before the House of Peoples for the second time.

The opposition is not satisfied with the Draft Budget of FBiH for the next year. DF, SDP, Our Party, as well as several smaller opposition parties in the FBiH Parliament have warned that it is incomprehensible that the Government plans to allocate only 6 percent of the total FBiH budget for the next year for development in this BiH entity, while the rest of the budget is planned to be spent on servicing debts and current obligations.

For example, the opposition is dissatisfied that, in times of severe economic crisis, the FBiH Government has increased the item related to financing political parties in the Budget for the next year.

Also, opposition parties criticize the fact that the Government plans to indebt citizens by an additional 700 million KM, even though several public companies, owned by the FBiH Government, have this money deposited with commercial banks, which the Government could withdraw and thus avoid new and expensive borrowing.

- The Government has given its money to banks so that banks can work with it, earn from that money, and then wants to take out loans from those same banks at high interest rates - the opposition has been warning for months, but there has been no change in thinking within the Government.

The federal Prime Minister Fadil Novalić himself said that the citizens of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot count on significant development next year. A reduction in the pressure caused by servicing the FBiH debt, which with interest amounts to more than one billion KM, can only be expected in two years.

- If we do not borrow again - Novalić admitted.

Delegates in the House of Peoples will also discuss the Draft Law on the Execution of the Budget of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2016, the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Budgets in FBiH, and the Draft Decision on Granting Consent to the Rebalanced Financial Plan of the Health Insurance and Reinsurance Fund of FBiH for 2015.
Delegates will also consider the Rebalanced Financial Plan of the Federal Solidarity Fund for 2015 and the Rebalanced Financial Plan of the Professional Service of the Health Insurance and Reinsurance Fund of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2015.

The session begins at 2 PM, writes Patria.